The history of the Philippines from 1521 to 1898, also known as the Spanish Colonial

Period, began with the arrival in 1521 of European explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing for Spain,
which heralded the period when the Philippines was a colony of the Spanish Empire, and ended with
the outbreak of the SpanishAmerican War in 1898, which marked the beginning of the American
Colonial Eraof Philippine history.

Although the archipelago may have been visited before by the Portuguese (who conquered Malacca
City in 1511 and reached Maluku Islands in 1512 ), the earliest documented European expedition to
the Philippines was that led by Ferdinand Magellan, in the service of the king of Spain. The
expedition first sighted the mountains of

Battle of Mactan

Samar at dawn on the 16th March 1521, making landfall the following day at the small, uninhabited
island of Homonhon at the mouth of the Leyte Gulf.[1] On Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521, at
Limasawa Island, Southern Leyte, as is stated in Pigafetta's Primo Viaggio Intorno El Mondo (First
Voyage Around the World), Magellan solemnly planted a cross on the summit of a hill overlooking
the sea and claimed for the king of Spain possession of the islands he had seen, naming
them Archipelago of Saint Lazarus.[2]
Magellan conquered and sought alliances among the natives beginning with Datu Zula, the chieftain
of Sugbu (now Cebu), and took special pride in converting them to Catholicism. Magellan's
expedition got involved in the political rivalries between the Cebuano natives and took part in a battle
against Lapu-lapu, chieftain of Mactan island and a mortal enemy of Datu Zula. At dawn on 27 April
1521, Magellan invaded Mactan Island with 60 armed men and 1,000 Cebuano warriors, but had
great difficulty landing his men on the rocky shore. Lapu-Lapu had an army of 1,500 on land.
Magellan waded ashore with his soldiers and attacked the Mactan defenders, ordering Datu Zula
and his warriors to remain aboard the ships and watch. Magellan seriously underestimated Lapu-
Lapu and his men, and grossly outnumbered, Magellan and 14 of his soldiers were killed. The rest
managed to reboard the ships.
The battle left the expedition with too few crewmen to man three ships, so they abandoned the
"Concepcin". The remaining ships - "Trinidad" and "Victoria" sailed to the Spice Islands in
present-day Indonesia. From there, the expedition split into two groups. The Trinidad, commanded
by Gonzalo Gmez de Espinoza tried to sail eastward across the Pacific Ocean to the Isthmus of
Panama. Disease and shipwreck disrupted Espinoza's voyage and most of the crew died. Survivors
of the Trinidad returned to the Spice Islands, where the Portuguese imprisoned them.
The Victoriacontinued sailing westward, commanded by Juan Sebastin Elcano, and managed to
return to Sanlcar de Barrameda, Spain in 1522. In 1529, Charles I of Spain relinquished all claims
to the Spice Islands to Portugal in the treaty of Zaragoza. However, the treaty did not stop the
colonization of the Philippine archipelago from New Spain.[3]
After Magellan's voyage, subsequent expeditions were dispatched to the islands. Five expeditions
were sent: that of Loaisa (1525), Cabot (1526), Saavedra (1527), Villalobos (1542),
and Legazpi (1564).[4] The Legazpi expedition was the most successful as it resulted in the discovery
of the tornaviaje or return trip to Mexico across the Pacific by Andrs de Urdaneta.[5] This discovery
started the Manila galleon trade, which lasted two and a half centuries.
In 1543, Ruy Lpez de Villalobos named the islands of Leyte and Samar Las Islas
Filipinas after Philip II of Spain.[6] Philip II became King of Spain on January 16, 1556, when his
father, Charles I of Spain, abdicated the Spanish throne. Philip was in Brussels at the time and his
return to Spain was delayed until 1559 because of European politics and wars in northern Europe.
Shortly after his return to Spain, Philip ordered an expedition mounted to the Spice Islands, stating
that its purpose was "to discover the islands to the west". In reality its task was to conquer the
Philippines for Spain.[7]
On November 19 or 20, 1564 a Spanish expedition of a mere 500 men led by Miguel Lpez de
Legazpi departed Barra de Navidad, New Spain, arriving off Cebu on February 13, 1565, conquering
it despite Cebuano opposition.[8]:77
In 1569, Legazpi transferred to Panay and founded a second settlement on the bank of the Panay
River. In 1570, Legazpi sent his grandson, Juan de Salcedo, who had arrived from Mexico in 1567,
to Mindoro to punish the Muslim Moro pirates who had been plundering Panay villages. Salcedo also
destroyed forts on the islands of Ilin and Lubang, respectively South and Northwest of Mindoro.[8]:79
In 1570, Martn de Goiti, having been dispatched by Legazpi to Luzon, conquered the Kingdom of
Maynila (now Manila), a puppet-state of the Sultanate of Brunei.[8]:79 Legazpi then made Maynila the
capital of the Philippines and simplified its spelling to Manila. His expedition also
renamed LuzonNueva Castilla. Legazpi became the country's first governor-general. With time,
Cebu's importance fell as power shifted north to Luzon. The archipelago was Spain's outpost in the
orient and Manila became the capital of the entire Spanish East Indies. The colony was administered
through the Viceroyalty of New Spain (now Mexico) until 1821 when Mexico achieved independence
from Spain. After 1821, the colony was governed directly from Spain.